So, first of all, a quick update- I am a lazy lazy momma and really just have been too afraid of not getting things typed out before the baby wakes. So, no blog posts lately, though a ton have run through my mind. Right now, I'm going to try to get a few things out, but gods only know if it'll work. I did get Thing 1 and Thing 2's quilts sewn together, just need to try my hand at applique and then finish up little Thing 3's quilt and applique it before all three will be done.
Aside from that, I've accomplished little outside of laundry and general baby-care. He's a rough baby, so you can understand how that'd take most of my energy. I do have a few projects in the plans, though. Just have to get a few other things done first.
Ok, so, most recently on my mind has been something someone said on one of my message board haunts about Disney. That she was boycotting Disney because there weren't any african american lead characters, and the one who was in The Frog Princess wasn't actually a princess. Admittedly, she hadn't seen the movie to know that Tiana was so much cooler than any silly 'princess' title could make her, but still, this left me with a bad taste in my mouth. She said that she didn't want her daughter watching movies with characters in them that weren't black, because it would make her wish to be white. Or something to that effect, anyways.
To me, this is just silly. I mean, I plan to let my little boy watch Disney, and the male characters in most of those movies are minor at best. Villains at worst. And none of them look exactly like my little boy. And I certainly don't think watching the movies are going to make him wish he was a blond haired, blue eyed little girl. I think people read too much into these sorts of things. They WANT to take offense to them because they want to push the race button. At least, that's how this feels to me. Because it's pretty darn obvious that if you wanted to pick at Disney movies, you'd have a lot easier targets than "my kid is going to want to be white from watching white girls be princesses." How about "my kid is going to think she can fall asleep and do nothing her whole life, then wake up and get married and never have to do anything else"? or, a more recurring theme "my kid is going to think that mothers are evil/unnecessary and cut me out of her life"? or better yet "my kid is going to think that as long as she's pretty, she never has another thing to worry about"?
There are a lot more negative things to be taken out of Disney than that. And hey, at least they didn't keep the original story, where Sleeping Beauty was raped and woke from her slumber because she was having a baby, and Cinderella's stepsisters chopped off pieces of their feet in order to fit the glass slipper. Because then they'd -really- have problems.
Because people can't be bothered to teach their children the difference between fantasy and reality. They'd rather have kids BELIEVE unreal things like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny than give them the gift of Imagination and have them PRETEND unreal things like boys being princesses, or imaginary worlds in the clouds (my personal 'imaginary friend' of childhood). I used to pretend I was a Ninja Turtle more often than a Disney character, and I certainly had no proclivity to become a giant turtle eating pizza all day long.
If you let the media raise your children, Disney is the least of your concerns. Do the teaching yourself, and it won't matter what colour the skin of the princess on the screen is- your girl's dreams will make her whatever she wants to be, whether it be princess, knight, or dragon. (Dude, I totally vote dragon, if it were up to me. I'd LOVE to be a dragon. Secondary desire would be Knight. Princesses don't get to do anything fun.)
